Archive for March, 2016

How ‘academic capitalism’ turns universities of the US and UK away from their public purpose

Universities from the United States and the United Kingdom are managing differently to be largely the same in the way they recruit international students – and by targeting privileged populations in their pursuit of international student fees, they risk losing their public purpose.

The U.K. government is reviewing universities’ use of overseas recruitment agents.

Roughly one third of international students in the U.K. come to universities through agents. U.K. institutions spent more than $US 126 million (£89 million) on commission payments in 2013-14, according to reporting by the Times Higher Education.

Fraud in the form of forged documents or qualifications is relatively common. The move comes amid concerns about a notable decline in non-EU university enrollments.

Technology shapes the internationalisation of higher education and will continue to do so in the coming years. The recently published Horizon 2016 Report highlights the five-year horizon of technologies that will likely impact higher education institutions worldwide.

This annual report is a joint venture between New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative and is known as the longest-running project exploring emerging technologies and trends in higher education. A group of 58 experts in the field from 16 countries collaboratively discussed and researched key inquiries concerning technology adoption and educational change resulting in this report.

By Wang Xiangwei, South China Morning Post – in University World News.

A rigid Stalinist bureaucratic rank system has not only created lethargic government bureaucracy but also permeated almost all levels of social and cultural institutions, including universities, writes Wang Xiangwei for South China Morning Post.

China has been building the equivalent of almost one university per week – part of a silent revolution that is causing a huge shift in the composition of the world’s population of graduates, writes Andreas Schleicher for BBC News.

In terms of producing graduates, China has overtaken the United States and the combined university systems of European Union countries, and the gap is going to become even wider. Even modest predictions see the number of 25 to 34 year-old graduates in China rising by a further 300% by 2030, compared with an increase of around 30% expected in Europe and the United States.

Most of us need both inspirational and factual resources to support our work. Finding sources that deliver on both aspects can be challenging, however. The OECD’s latest report, Trends Shaping Education 2016, was a pleasant surprise.

The report reflects on the potential impacts five overarching trends
-globalisation,
-the future of the nation state,
-the rise of the city,
-the changing family, and
-technology
might have on education in the future.

Like a good teacher, the report provides few answers but asks some intriguing questions.

There should be an urgent review of falling scores used in the Australian universities’ admissions system and the institutional pressures on academics to pass students.

“… If it were any other industry there would be calls for an urgent public inquiry. But not when it comes to universities. If ever there was a sector that demonstrated the ‘Teflon effect’ it would surely be Australia’s system of university education. Yet nothing seems to stick …”

The Swedish Research Council has published a report showing that just over half of academics at universities and university colleges are recruited from the same higher education institution from which they got their doctoral degree. The research council says the findings are “worrying”.